It is frequently necessary to keep objects coupled together, and to periodically release these objects from the coupled condition. For example, hinged doors and other closures may ordinarily be kept closed, but are opened periodically to afford access to the space sealed by the closure. Conventionally, rotatable hand operated latches may be provided to latch and unlatch a closure from its associated receptacle. However, rotatable latches typically have exposed projecting components which may become entangled with environmental objects, damaged, or lost.
In one example, the hood of a motor vehicle may require a latch which is readily actuated to release the hood for opening. Although passenger vehicles are conventionally provided with latches which engage automatically and which are manually released from the passenger cabin, supplementary latches have been provided for securing the hood. Typically, these latches utilize lanyards and other components which are susceptible to damage and loss due in part to the fact that they project upwardly above the hood surface. Environmental objects can easily become entangled with latch components, which may distort the latch and damage the environmental objects.
It would be desirable in situations such as that regarding exposed hood latches to provide a latch which may be essentially flush with the surface of its associated closure, and which is readily manually actuated. There exists a need for a potentially flushly mounted, manually actuated latch for latching two objects to one another and unlatching the same.